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I was opposed to the invasion of Iraq. At the same time, I wasn’t hoping for it to fail. I didn’t wish death on American soldiers. I wanted the invasion to be a success. While I felt everything being promised by the Bush/Cheney administration, like “they’ll treat us as liberators,” and “it’ll be quick and easy,” was total bullshit, I wanted to be proven wrong.

Most people want our president to succeed, even if they didn’t vote for him, don’t like him, and don’t have any faith at all in the person. They want America to succeed regardless of the president and which party he belongs to (or Russian dictator). Regular people don’t want American failures so they can score political points for their partisanship. While I don’t want stupid and regressive policies inflicted upon my nation, I don’t want Vladimir Putin sitting in the Oval Office to prove my point.

Donald Trump wishes failure on America. He said so himself as he says “we’ll just wait for Obamacare to fail.” These are not words of patriots. Donald Trump and many Republicans are not patriots. Fortunately, there’s about three in the GOP Senate, and they’re all women. They have blocked the Republicans from stripping health care from millions of Americans just so the rich can get a generous tax break.

While it’s easier to wait for something to collapse than actually work on it (and cast blame on the party that doesn’t control Congress), we didn’t elect a president to take it easy (though I am kinda relieved every time he’s on a golf course).

Now the GOP wants to repeal Obamacare without a replacement and give themselves a deadline to replace within two years with “something better.” These guys spent seven years voting to repeal Obamacare without ever proposing a solution. They’ve had the House, Senate, and White House since January, and they can’t submit a plan that works or is acceptable to the public. Do you really believe they’ll come through in two years?

Republicans wished Obama to fail. They said so. Now they’re in power, and they still wish pain and suffering on America. The responsible thing to do would be to make Obamacare better, not wish for it to die and affect millions of Americans. Republicans won’t just wait for it to die on its own. They’ll do everything they can to make it fail.

Trump and the GOP continue to describe Obamacare as failing. That is a lie. It’s not failing. It can be a lot better but it’s not going to die on its own. The GOP will have to manipulate it to make it fail, and they’re willing to do that.

Creative note: Even though this is published early, you’re still getting another cartoon in the morning.

I want to thank everyone who has donated in the past. Your support helps me continue creating cartoons and columns with a little less stress in my life. Between competing syndicates with much larger resources, timid editors, and Trump supporters who attempt to intimidate the editors who do publish anything that criticizes their idol, it’s a challenge to make a career out of this. So your support (if you can) is appreciated. Want to help me continue to create cartoons and keep doing what I’m doing (pissing off conservatives)? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through PayPal. Every $40 donation will receive a signed print. All donations will receive my eternal gratitude.

You would think that if someone voted to strip healthcare from millions of people that they wouldn’t celebrate it openly? But then again, Hitler held rallies too.

Republicans, who complained that Democrats passed Obamacare without knowing what was in it, passed Trump/RyanCare today without knowing what’s in it. Many even admitted they didn’t read the bill. On top of that, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office hasn’t completed their report on the effects of TrumpCare.

The GOP tried once before to pass a bill repealing and replacing Obamacare but it failed because it wasn’t evil enough. The one that barely passed today was chock-full of evil goodness, such as allowing insurance companies to charge more if you have a preexisting condition. Also, it’s a huge tax gift for millionaires and billionaires. Oh goody!

Creative Notes: Short blog as it’s 9:30 and I have not eaten today. I’m also planning to draw another cartoon tonight, so leave me alone.

“Tick Tick Boom” is a song by the Swedish garage band The Hives. It’s been out for a really long time but for some reason I’m just now discovering it and I’ve had it on repeat several times this week.

Want to help me continue to create cartoons and keep doing what I’m doing? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through Paypal. Your support contributes to my work and continued existence. The starving cartoonist appreciates it. If you’ve donated in the past, THANK YOU!!!

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Jimmy Kimmel used the monologue of his talk show on ABC Monday night to talk about his newborn son. It was a frightening story that had a happy ending.

Shortly after his son was born it was discovered that he had heart defects and needed emergency surgery. Kimmel was very emotional in telling his story, which any parent would be. I’ll make a long story short and inform you that is his son was saved and should be OK. But if Kimmel wasn’t a rich talk show host and we didn’t have Obamacare, would his son have survived?

Being serious isn’t something Kimmel often does. Another rarity for him was to get serious about politics. Kimmel made a point by saying “before 2014, if you were born with congenital heart disease like my son was, there was a good chance you’d never be able to get health insurance because you had a pre-existing condition. You were born with a pre-existing condition. And if your parents didn’t have medical insurance, you might not live long enough to even get denied because of a pre-existing condition.”

He went on to say “If your baby is going to die, and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make. I think that’s something that, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?”

Wrong. Not everyone agrees. Former congressman Republican Joe Walsh from Illinois, who’s less cool than Joe Walsh of The Eagles, tweeted out “Sorry Jimmy Kimmel: your sad story doesn’t obligate me or anybody else to pay for somebody else’s health care.” Of course Mr. Walsh doesn’t care about Kimmel’s, or anyone else’s baby, because Mr. Walsh doesn’t concern himself with his own children’s welfare. He was once one of the nation’s most notorious deadbeat dads owing at one point $117,000. You’ll probably find him in a basket with other deplorables.

Walsh isn’t alone in being a shit weasel. Another Republican congressman, Mo Brooks from Alabama, explained how he and other heartless conservatives see the debate over pre-existing conditions and affordable coverage. Mo was pitching Trump/RyanCare on CNN to Jake Tapper and said the GOP healthcare bill “will allow insurance companies to require people who have higher healthcare costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives, they’re healthy, they’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy.” So basically Jimmy Kimmel’s baby would have to die for not leading a good life.

I can sympathize with Kimmel. I’ve never had a scare as frightening as his but I can relate. I’ve been very close to tragedy.

When I was 15-years-old I lost my nephew, who was two-years-old. He was my older sister’s first baby. A few months after he died I spent the Summer with my big sis and my brother-in-law and I could hear her crying every night. It was the first time in my life that I cursed God. I never cursed him again because I stopped believing in him.

My nephew’s death made me a very paranoid parent several years later after my own son was born. I knew disaster could come out of nowhere. I had several sleepless nights watching him sleep, which he usually did on my chest. Once when he was still in the crawling stage my wife and I picked him up from daycare and all of a sudden it seemed he kept passing out while in his child seat in the backseat of the car. We made a beeline for the hospital freaking out the entire way.

Like Kimmel’s story, my story also ended happily but I know the worry and sick panic when you feel completely helpless and all you can do is sit and wait. My son is 26 now, doing fine and talks to me at least once a week when we argue over Star Wars canon versus theory. I hate Star Wars theory but I get to argue with him which is something every parent should look forward to.

Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, and their fellow Republicans should not decide if your child doesn’t receive healthcare because of your income. They also shouldn’t say he or she should die because they lead terrible lives.

If we strip healthcare from people for leading terrible lives we should start by ripping it away from these Republicans.

Creative notes: This cartoon will not see a lot of reprints and hopefully it won’t cost me any clients. Today I’m running a contest on Facebook with this cartoon and blog entry. The first of my Facebook friends who shares it and gets 20 likes for it on their FB page wins a free signed print of their choice. If you were my Facebook friend then you too could play.

I’ll do another contest in a week or so. I’m easy to find on Facebook. If you do a search I’ll probably be the first Clay Jones who pops up.

Want to help me continue to create cartoons and keep doing what I’m doing? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through Paypal. Your support contributes to my work and continued existence. The starving cartoonist appreciates it. If you’ve donated in the past, THANK YOU!!!

Want a signed copy of this cartoon? Donate at least $50 and I’ll ship it to you. Make sure to mention in the note with your donation which cartoon you want along with the mailing address you need it shipped to. If it’s a gift, make sure to mention the recipient’s name so I can make it out to them.

Breaking news! There is no such things as TrumpCare. TrumpCare does not exist and it never will.

Why did “repealing and replacing” Obamacare fail? The first reason is that Donald Trump is a bad president. We’ve had plenty of bad presidents in the past but this one is also an idiot. A spectacular one at that.

Regarding TrumpCare, he didn’t care. Over the past few weeks, and it was only a few weeks versus a year to pass Obamacare, Trump never talked about how TrumpCare worked. How many times did you hear Trump talk about the details of the Republican health plan? Maybe once? Maybe twice? Try never. You never did. His biggest argument, along with all of the GOP, was that Obamacare was a disaster. You spent seven years telling us Obamacare was a disaster but he couldn’t sell his own plan, or Ryan’s plan. His answer was to promote a plan that only had 17% support from the American public.

The Republicans spent seven years trying to repeal Obamacare. By the time they finally had the House, Senate, and the White House, they didn’t know what to do with it and they failed to keep their promise. The GOP has a 40 plus advantage in the House yet they still couldn’t repeal and replace Obamcare. For seven years they failed to offer an alternative to Obamacare. As it turns out, they never had one. Now when they bash Obamcare in the future it’ll be pointed out to them that they don’t have a plan that can pass.

Donald Trump told us he would repeal and replace Obamacare. He said he’d drain the swamp. He said he’d ban Muslims from entering the country. He told us we can’t have a president who’s under an FBI investigation. Now that he’s been president for two months Trump has stocked the swamp with Nazi alligators, Obamacare is here to stay for the indefinite future, his Muslim ban has been knocked down in court….TWICE, and he is under an FBI investigation for treason. Trump has proven to be a total fraud within his first two months. Why the hell is he here if he can’t deliver on any of his promises?

You didn’t close the deal, Donald. You told us you were the closer. You told us only you could save it. You said it was easy to make deals. There’s a book with your name on it called “The Art Of The Deal.” You didn’t even write that book. As it turns out, healthcare is hard. Who knew? Everybody knew except for you, Donald. Too bad not enough people knew you were a fraud.

The art of a Trump deal is he promises something better. He threatens people in his own party which turns out to be a weak threat when you’re a proven liar and your credibility has sunk to leave you with an approval rating lower than gonorrhea. After his threats didn’t work his strategy was to warn that letting it die put Obamacare on their shoulders, plus they’d be responsible for keeping Planned Parenthood funded (that was part of this brilliant “healthcare” plan). After it finally failed he blamed Democrats. Wait, what?

The Republicans didn’t ask the Democrats for help. They pushed this against them. They said they didn’t need the Democrats. They didn’t write the bill with them, didn’t negotiate with them, didn’t offer them anything. So it’s their fault the bill died? That’s like saying it’s the pigs fault the big bad wolf couldn’t blow their house down. If you want to eat a crap sandwich and I refuse to help you, it’s not my fault when you hurl.

A narcissist is never wrong. They can’t admit defeat. They can’t admit mistakes. They also don’t learn from their mistakes. Trump has stumbled and messed up again and again. Bill Clinton lost a healthcare battle and it hammered his presidency and he lost the House. He learned from it and went on to serve two terms where even an impeachment couldn’t remove him from office.

Obama spent a year working on the Affordable Care Act. The Democrats weren’t united entirely on it. That took a lot of work. They didn’t try to pass a bill with a 17% approval rating within two months of taking office. The Republicans complained that Obamacare was made in backroom deals behind locked doors and it was passed before anyone could read it. To counter that Paul Ryan crafted a deal behind closed doors that no one was allowed to read.

Donald Trump doesn’t have the political talent of Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. Donald Trump is not an intelligent person. He’s president because there’s a very large number of Americans who don’t consider racism a deal killer.

TrumpCare was written by people who don’t care about health care. It was written by people who don’t care about other people except for wealthy people. TrumpCare was written to provide tax breaks for the richest two percent of Americans while knocking 24 million other Americans off health care coverage. That’s the undercurrent of why TrumpCare failed. Even the racist Freedom Caucus in the House couldn’t swallow that, or at least not enough of them to pass the bill. Even if it had passed the House it still had the Senate to get through.

So why did TrumpCare fail? Trump is bad at his job and he’s an amateur president. Paul Ryan is bad at his job too. It was a bad and selfish policy. The biggest reason it failed though is that it moved people to fight it. Not rich people. Real people. People stormed town halls and offices of congressmen and senators. Even representatives in red districts had to face the backlash. They had to hear personal testimonies and see their faces. The people said no. They took the power out of Trump’s hands. The Resistance resisted and won.

Now Trump has less capital to push Gorsuch into the Supreme Court. He has much less to build the stupid wall. Hey, I’m sure that budget plan will just sail right through. The good news for The Resistance is that this president is weaker. If he fails with his next proposal he won’t be able to pass anything through Congress that threatens our nation.

Ha Ha!

Want to help me continue to create cartoons and keep doing what I’m doing? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through Paypal. Your support contributes to my work and continued existence. The starving cartoonist appreciates it. If you’ve donated in the past, THANK YOU!!!

Want a signed copy of this cartoon? Donate at least $50 and I’ll ship it to you. Make sure to mention in the note with your donation which cartoon you want along with the mailing address you need it shipped to. If it’s a gift, make sure to mention the recipient’s name so I can make it out to them.

“TrumpCare” is an oxymoron. Trump, who was surprised healthcare could “be so complicated,” doesn’t care. That’s not entirely true as there are things Trump does care about.

Trump cares about crowd sizes. He cares about how many times he’s been on the cover of Time Magazine. He cares about what Rosie O’Donnell says about him. He cares about TV ratings. He cares about insults tweeted at him. He cares about being called “Putin’s Puppet.” He cares about Saturday Night Live, Alec Baldwin, and Broadway plays that insult his vice president, what’s-his-name.” He cares about whether girls are flat-chested or not. He cares that Jeff Sessions recused himself. He cares about people saying he has tiny hands implying he has an itty bitty teeny weeny tiny orange penis. He does not care about your health.

One of the dumbest things about so many people voting for Trump (out of the long list of dumb reasons) is that many voted to get rid of Obamacare based upon Trump’s promise to replace it with “something better.”

It’s like that game show where the contestant wins a prize but they can exchange it for something unknown behind another door. But what happens if you don’t like that car because it has a few problems and it was built by a black guy and you’ll settle for anything other than that car? You can end up riding home on a goat.

People voted for Trump to get rid of Obamacare while not having the slightest idea what Trump was offering. Don’t feel too bad because Trump didn’t know what he was offering either. He just assured us it was going to be “something better.” Congress didn’t have any idea. They spent so much time over the past seven years attempting to repeal Obamacare that they never did come up with a plan to replace it.

“Something better” has turned out to be dead on arrival. Not only are a lot of Trump voters upset with “TrumpCare” but so are a lot of Republicans in the House and Senate.

What’s wrong with TrumpCare, you ask? First off it says employers no longer have to offer health care. So if you’re unhappy with the cost of healthcare, don’t worry. Soon you may not have any insurance.

Another detail is that you’re not required to purchase healthcare which means young people won’t purchase it because they’re all invincible and that will drive up costs.

It gives tax credits based upon income and age which will really benefit rich people. Lower income folks? Not so much.

It eliminates the funding for Medicaid expansion. It allows insurers to impose a 30 per cent surcharge on premiums for any lapses in coverage. It aims to strip funding for Planned Parenthood. However, it does repeal a tax on indoor tanning beds (what a Trump highlight). That tax break will come in handy when you have to pay health costs for skin cancer.

The plan is so bad that the nation’s leading hospital and doctor groups are opposing it. The AARP is against it and that’s one voting block you don’t piss off. Old people vote. That makes the bill dead on arrival. I’ve seen old people come to near riots at grocery stores that were out of bananas.

Obamacare is actually titled the “Affordable Care Act.” Republicans started referring to it as “Obamacare” to scare voters. Those type of people didn’t want anything to do with something named after that Muslim, Kenyan-born, terrorist president. In fact, after the election many Trump voters said they didn’t care if Obamacare was eliminated because they had the ACA, the Affordable Care Act. Obama eventually started referring to the plan as “Obamacare” himself. He embraced it.

Trump doesn’t want this new bill, titled “the American Health Care Act,” to be referred to as “TrumpCare.” Donald Trump has been willing to put his name on anything. Hotels, golf courses, steaks, water, modeling agencies, cheap ties, a bicycle race (the Tour de Trump), a scam university, a board game, wine he doesn’t drink, and fragrances. You too can smell like Donald Trump. Get the fragrance and that tanning bed and you’re in business. Add an ugly tie and a bad reality show and you’ll really pick up the chicks.

Trump doesn’t want his name on this new health plan. That’s probably smart because most things with his name on it are doomed to fail, like his hair.

He’s not alone in not wanting his name on it. A lot of people don’t want their names linked up to the new health plan.

So when you retweet this cartoon or share on Facebook, be sure to use the hashtag #TrumpCare.

Did you like this cartoon? Want to help a cartoonist make a living? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through Paypal. I need to buy pens, paper, sandwiches, etc.. The starving cartoonist appreciates it. If you’ve donated in the past, THANK YOU!!!

During the presidential campaign Donald Trump promised to repeal Obamacare and replace it with “something better.” He never told us what “something better” includes but we’re going to love it.

After The Affordable Healthcare Act was passed in 2012 Republicans attempted to repeal it over 60 times. Not once in that time span have they had a plan to replace it with. Today they tell us they’re going to “repeal and replace.” The details they’re short on is what they’re going to replace it with.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is a man who knows policy. He’s intelligent, informed, and is very detailed on specifics. He’s the Republican’s top guy and even he can’t give us details on this replacement. The leeches might be an appropriate analogy as we’re now looking for a healthcare plan from a man who looks like Eddie Munster.

A majority of voters want Obamacare repaired. A lot of premiums have shot up and consumers are feeling the pain. Republican voters want it repealed entirely without considering they may be uninsured afterward. Many are covered by Obamacare and they’re not even aware of it. On top of all this anyone who believes their rates will go down after Obamacare is repealed are idiots. They probably believe Putin is a good guy and we should trust Julian Assange over the CIA. Of course we’re talking about Trump voters so we’re not talking about people who play with full decks.

Voters gave Republicans full control of the government and they’re about to get what has been promised. The GOP plans to trash Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and access to healthcare for everyone. But hey, America will be great again.

What should be clear to everyone is that Republicans suck.

Did you like this cartoon? Want to help a cartoonist make a living? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through Paypal. I need to buy pens, paper, sandwiches, etc.. The starving cartoonist appreciates it. If you’ve donated in the past, THANK YOU!!!

Did you see the premiere for season 7 of The Walking Dead? It was brutal. So brutal that a lot of people complained about the blood, gore, and just sheer brutality. They want that sort of stuff off television so they don’t make the stupid mistake of letting their children watch it again.

Seriously, the show is in its seventh season. The gore and brutality isn’t a new thing. People complaining that they let their kids watch are also announcing their sloppy parenting skills. Don’t like it? Don’t watch it.

But Negan is one scary guy.

The increase in insurance premiums for a lot of people covered by Obamacare might be the GOP’s best issue to save the Senate and House. Well, the House isn’t in real danger but they’ll lose some seats. The Senate is in real trouble and Trump has no shot at the White House.

The increase isn’t hitting most people but a lot of people hate Obamacare just because they enjoy hating things. If they started calling french fries “Obama fries” Republicans would stop eating potatoes.

The other thing is, what will the GOP replace it with? Trumpcare?

“Trumpcare.” Now that’s an oxymoron.

I just discovered that if you use the hashtag #TWD on Twitter, a baseball bat symbol is displayed next to it.

Did you like this cartoon? Want to help a cartoonist make a living? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through Paypal. I need to buy pens, paper, sandwiches, and dog food. The starving cartoonist and his Beagle appreciates it. If you’ve donated in the past, THANK YOU!!!